Fatal deer disorder may be spreading

September 20, 2002 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by John Fauber and Meg
Jones jfauber@journalsentinel.com

A white-tailed buck shot on a game farm in Portage County has tested
positive for chronic wasting disease, the first time the fatal brain
disorder has been found in Wisconsin outside the original outbreak
area southwest of Madison.

The Department of Natural Resources said it would step up testing
of the wild white-tailed deer population near the game farm and in
Walworth County, where the deer was purchased.

Authorities already had planned to test 500 deer in Portage
County during this fall's gun deer season as part of a plan to check
for the disease in every county. Now, the department may immediately
start checking animals from the area killed by bow hunters and in
traffic accidents. Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer
Protection officials said they were notified late Wednesday that one
of two white-tailed deer killed Sept. 4 by a hunter who paid to hunt
on the enclosed preserve had tested positive.

This is believed to be the first captive white-tailed deer that
has tested positive for chronic wasting disease in the nation. Until
now, the only infected captive animals have been elk, with the
exception of some wild deer put in a pen in Nebraska a few years ago
that later turned out to be infected.

Wisconsin State Veterinarian Clarence Siroky said investigators
were trying to determine the age of the buck and find out whether the
hunter processed it into venison. DNR and agriculture officials also
are trying to piece together the movement of the sick deer to assess
how many other animals might have come in contact with it.

Agriculture officials have quarantined both the Portage County
and Walworth County game farms. The officials would not identify them.

Eventually, all of the animals on both farms could be killed,
Siroky said. At the very least, the owners of the farms will not be
allowed to move any animals for a minimum of five years, he said.

Siroky said the Portage County farm has about 40 animals confined
to a breeding area and an unknown number of deer on more than 100
acres that make up a game preserve. Hunters pay fees of up to several
thousand dollars to shoot animals on captive preserves, Siroky said.

It was not known how many animals were on the Walworth County farm.

Part of the decision on whether to kill all of the animals on
both farms will depend on obtaining money to compensate the farmers.
That money may come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he said.
He said the maximum compensation was $1,500 an animal.

Veterinarian not surprised

Siroky said he was not surprised to learn of the positive test
from a captive herd.

"White-tail deer, regardless of what side of the fence it's on,
is susceptible to CWD," Siroky said. "As a vet, I'm never surprised,
because all you need is exposure and opportunity."

The discovery likely will cast even more suspicion on the captive
deer and elk industry.

Ever since the discovery of chronic wasting disease in
Wisconsin's wild white-tailed deer population near Mount Horeb in
February, game farms have come under suspicion as a possible way the
disease got into the state.

With more than 35,000 animals and 946 game farms, Wisconsin is
one of the leading states in the captive deer and elk industry. In
just the last six years, 3,000 deer and elk have come into the state,
many from places, such as Colorado, Nebraska and Saskatchewan, that
already have the disease. At the same time, Wisconsin elk and deer
farmers actively have been buying and selling animals among
themselves. Since 1997, more than 900 elk and deer have moved from
farm to farm within the state. Most of the in-state trade has been
bucks sold to hunting preserves.

Deer and elk farmers and Wisconsin agriculture Secretary Jim
Harsdorf have argued that the industry has been unfairly criticized
and that there had never been a positive test on a Wisconsin game
farm. But as of last month, fewer than 20% of the farms here had been
testing for the disease.

"Obviously, I'm concerned and always have been about CWD in the
state in any form," said Gary Nelson, president of Whitetails of
Wisconsin, an organization of deer farmers. "Under any circumstances,
it's not good news for anybody."

Nelson has about 1,000 white-tailed deer on his Marinette County farm.

"I'm sure that some people will jump on it and suggest 'I told
you so,' but really we don't know what has happened," Nelson said.
"It's just as possible CWD can move from the wild to the captive
herds."

Tom Hauge, DNR wildlife director and chronic wasting disease
program leader, said he hoped the positive test in Portage County
would prompt more deer and elk farmers to sign up for Wisconsin's
monitoring program. The program is voluntary, but in order for deer
and elk farmers to sell or move any animal that is at least 16 months
old -- dead or alive -- they must be enrolled in the program.

"We need a good chronic-wasting disease monitoring program for
both the wild herd and the farm-raised," Hauge said. "You can't
protect one without the other. We're joined at the hip."

Spreading to new herds

In recent years, the captive elk industry demonstrated a
proficiency for spreading chronic wasting disease from farm to farm,
as infected animals joined new herds.

An outbreak that started in a Colorado elk farm ultimately
infected 12 herds in three states. An outbreak in Saskatchewan
reached 41 herds, including one in Alberta.

Although most of the game farm trade is above board, some is
illicit, officials say. Record keeping can be shoddy.

A USDA investigation of game farm animals this year identified
500 with the disease, all of them elk. At least 20 of those animals
were imported to Wisconsin and had come from diseased herds. Some
have since died; the rest are being monitored.

Last month, officials in Minnesota announced that chronic wasting
disease had been found for the first time in that state when a
5-year-old elk on a farm in the eastern part of the state tested
positive for the disease.

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